Following a good driver
Discussion
Late at night i followed a Seat Leon from Telford Shropshire to Millmeece, it was a bit jazzed up, led backlights big exhaust but nothing major, what impressed me is that until we got to Eccalshall he did not once use his brakes, the Leon wasnt quick, from a couple of roundabouts he hammered it and frankley was slow, but on the bends it flew, like i said now brakes and really pushing it , my car really struggled to keep up (330ci sport E46) on the twisties, i thought his brake lights were faulty untill he did a long brake going into Eccalshall, he must have spent something on his suspension, or are X-reg leons that good, also suspension aside it was still an excellent drive, anyone else struggle to keep up with a much slower car, anyone else that will admit it that is, i consider myself a reasonably good driver, ive slowed down alot in recent years but am quite good at hitting bends right with minimal use of brakes....until last night anyway, over to you.
Had a similar experience last weekend. I was in an S60 T5 following a mk1 Audi TT 1.8T quattro...which was being driven by the ex-head of the south Wales police driving school. His use of brakes was probably about 50% of mine, and I'm quite light on them myself. But it was the way he took corners that I've never seen anything like - I was only keeping up with him by reeling him back on the long straights. That's when you realise you're not the driving god you thought you were...
That smacks of an advanced driving style
It is one of the challenges that many of us advanced drivers set ourselves as a test/game as it shows great forward observation and planning
Not just advanced though .... I had a candidate on a DSA LGV test who almost went the entire test without braking unless the examiner told him to stop at the side of the road
If the non use of brakes is replaced by using the gears to slow down that that is not a good style of driving in normal conditions
It is one of the challenges that many of us advanced drivers set ourselves as a test/game as it shows great forward observation and planning
Not just advanced though .... I had a candidate on a DSA LGV test who almost went the entire test without braking unless the examiner told him to stop at the side of the road
If the non use of brakes is replaced by using the gears to slow down that that is not a good style of driving in normal conditions
S3000 said:
He is never, ever going to live that down.Add it to the 335/MX5/oxo/CSV list!
I too enjoy following a really good driver, have no problem being followed by one either. Went long way to festival of speed a couple of years ago and through all the twisty bits we were behind a diesel peugeot 308 going for it, very safe overtakes, opening it up wherever safe to do so. No way I could have got past him without doing something stupid (progress was such I didn't want to anyway).
Edited by Dr G on Sunday 22 July 12:13
Dr G said:
S3000 said:
He is never, ever going to live that down.Add it to the 335/MX5/oxo list!
Although not an advanced driver, I'm always challeging myself to use my brakes as little as possible. Anticipation and knowing the road ahead is the key. A good one is if your following a car and he brakes for 2 seconds, lift off the gas for the same amount of time he is braking and you won't need to touch your brakes. This assumes he isn't sudden braking and you are keeping a sensible distance. Other simple things are looking for traffic lights up ahead and slowing the car down accordingly
Mouse1903 said:
Other simple things are looking for traffic lights up ahead and slowing the car down accordingly
What many drivers are afraid of in doing this is what other drivers are thinking such as why doesn't that driver move up quicker? - thay soon 'get it' when they find out that they never actually come to a stop !!What about the thought of covering your brakes so that you do actually activate the brake lights?
You might have great observational skills and be able to drive along without using your brakes, but you could end up with someone driving straight in to the back of you.
A lot of people can't see past the car in front of them and drive following the car in front.
You might have great observational skills and be able to drive along without using your brakes, but you could end up with someone driving straight in to the back of you.
A lot of people can't see past the car in front of them and drive following the car in front.
Can't remember which driver it was now, but was recently reading about some race driver who as he set off home after a days testing one of the crew noticed his brake lights weren't working so set off in pursuit to warn him. They really struggled to keep up and it was only when he'd reached home and the car pulled into the garage the brake lights came on.
Agree about you can go faster using the brakes rather than not, but you use less fuel and it is a more fluid drive if you don't brake much.
Agree about you can go faster using the brakes rather than not, but you use less fuel and it is a more fluid drive if you don't brake much.
sim16v said:
You might have great observational skills and be able to drive along without using your brakes, but you could end up with someone driving straight in to the back of you.
someone with "great observational skills" will be observing the vehicles behind and displaying brake light/signals accordingly Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff